Paka (Afterverse)
Paka was a le-matoran from Mahri Nui. History Early Life Paka was created by the Great Beings with all of the other Matoran to assist in the construction of the Mata Nui robot. He was one of the few assigned to work on Kadra Nui. His job was to drive supply vehicles across the plains to the various construction sites. On these trips he was constantly attacked by rahi and the 'living lightning', but was defended by the Toa Mata. After the construction was finished, Paka's memory was wiped and he was placed into stasis, as the Great Beings working in the core was likely to have caused either defects or mental alterations, potentially allowing for partial recall of his time working on the construction. The pod was hidden with six others in a secret cache in the southern islands. After thousand years, the catch of stasis pods that he was in was discovered by the armies of the League of Six Kingdoms. The pods were claimed by Takadox, who used his connections to the Brotherhood of Makuta to discern their origins. All records of this correspondence were destroyed after the sudden end to the research. Several months later, three of the pods were traded to Karzahni in exchanged for several manas crabs, including Paka's. When Karzahni was unable to open the pods, he hid them away in the depths of his storerooms. Paka awoke due to a malfunction in his pod, releasing him into the hostile environment of Karzahni. Upon seeing the deformed "fixed" matoran that populated the hellish realm, Paka panicked and locked himself in a room for several years. During this time, his ADHD-like condition developed acutely as a combination of the effects of being in the incompletely shielded core and from his isolation. He was finally discovered, on the verge of total mental breakdown, and taken to be fixed. Upon the completion of his transformation, Karzahni questioned him as to where he had come from. When Paka answered honestly that he did not know, Karzahni was enraged and gave him a powerless kanohi shaped like his Olsi as punishment. The other matoran shunned him, fearful because he was marked in such a fashion by the lord of the realm. Eventually, Karzahni became fearful that his accidents would be discovered, and he began to ship his "fixed" matoran off to the Southern Continent. He ensured that Paka was in one of the first few groups sent south. In an uncharacteristic moment of defiance and bravery, before he left Paka located his old Hau and left the shattered shard of the Olsi in it's place. Southern Continent and Mahri Nui Paka was one of the first to settle in the coastal town of Mahri Nui after the Great Cataclysm. Having never settled anywhere on the Southern Continent, he chose to do so out of necessity, as Voya Nui was not an environment that lent itself to the life of a nomadic hermit. Hoping to find a place for himself, he acquired a hut ans settled in. After the city sank into the Voya Nui Bay, Paka attempted to join the Mahri Nui Sentinels. However, due to his condition he was denied. Determined to be a part of the guard, he spent the next month developing a method involving wiggling his fingers to control his 'ADHD.' He applied again and made it in, and spent the rest of his days serving as a Sentinel in defense of the city. Rock Bottom Paka was one of the Sentinels rallied by Idris to defend the city from the gadunka. He was one of the sharpshooters given a solidified air zamor launcher and ordered to fire on the creature. However, Paka's launcher malfunctioned and he has unable to fire. He struggled fix fix it while his partner Aescela guarded him. By the time he had gotten it functional, the Sentinels were in full retreat. Rather than join them, he and Aescela decided to distract the creature so the others could make their escape. During their initial attack, Aescela was injured, leaving Paka alone against the gadunka. He fired another shot, disconnecting one of the creature's claws, but it was no no avail. The gadunka grabbed Paka and lifted him up to it's face. Paka stared the creature down, and it promptly bit his head off. After the battle, Paka's body was recovered and returned to Mahri Nui, where he was given a funeral along with the rest of the matoran who had perished within the last two days. Personality and Traits Paka was a complacent and neutral individual. He always strove to accept his lot in life regardless of the circumstances. Matoran that knew him considered him a reasonable and pleasant matoran, always willing to help out in a pinch. But he did nothing to merit much remembrance. Nevertheless, he remained a determined individual working to make a difference in whatever small ways he could. He suffered from an ADHD-like condition, never being able to stand being still for more than a few seconds. For a while, this condition dominated his life, but after he was told he would be unable to become a Sentinel because of it, he developed a technique involving the wiggling of the fingers of his right hand (he was left-handed) in order to keep himself stationary. Powers and Equipment As a le-matoran, Paka had the potential to control the element of air, though he was unable to access these abilities. He was, however, naturally more agile and quicker when in air, and was able to tell the direction and speed of the wind with ease. He wore a green kanohi Hau to match his armor. He wielded twin electro-blades and later solidified air zamor launcher. Upon being sent to Karzahni, he was "fixed" into a weaker body. After Mahri Nui sunk into the Voya Nui bay, the small amount of mutagen Paka was exposed to gave him a stronger, sleeker form more suited to his new environment that partially resembled his original body. Appearances *''Rock Bottom'' (First Appearance) Trivia *Paka was originally conceived by years before his appearance in Rock Bottom. He was planned to appear in several stories, and was used in the incomplete story Rebel Lines, but as none of these came to fruition he was stored away for later. When DeltaStriker needed a filler character in the final chapter of Rock Bottom, the character was dragged briefly to the forefront, ironically for the sole purpose of killing him off. Whether or not he will be used in the future remains to be seen. Category:Afterverse